Tell me please what you did for fun today.
I know you’ve been working so hard to hold it altogether. It’s hard sometimes.
Tell me please what made you smile.
Life keeps challenging in different ways, tripping you up, changing the scenery, changing the rules.
Tell me what lit up your eyes.
And this happened and that happened.
I know. I know. But please tell me what made you stop in wonder.
I am writing, of course, not to you, but to me. It’s just easier if I think it’s for someone else, that I have it altogether but maybe I can help someone else. I don’t. I can’t. It’s just me talking to me. Telling me to stop. To remember to notice, to smile, to appreciate, to play.
To play!
I can stop and watch a child playing, exploring, laughing,
and for a moment I remember,
and smile with my remembering,
and then forget,
and go back to holding it altogether.
I’m too serious. So much in a hurry. Trying so hard to hold it altogether. I’ve already said that, haven’t I? Hold it together. Hold it together. As if I can hold anything together when everything changes every moment.
What I let drop too often is
play
and laughter
and wonder
and sheer enjoyment.
Aren’t these as much a part of life as the serious stuff? Aren’t they just as important? Aren’t they what nourish us and give us life and make it possible to go back and try – or at least pretend – to hold it altogether?
So, help me please. Tell me what you did for fun today. What made you smile? What made you stop in your tracks and notice? What made you laugh? Did you surrender to play and rest and gratitude and beauty? Did I? Or was I too busy finding the one thing that still needed doing, the thing I could have done better, the endless problems I think I should solve?
Yes, please. I want to know. Please tell me.
What did you do for fun today?
